September 24, 2023 | James 1:26-2:13 | Pastor Chris Baker
Good morning, church! We’re going to read James 1:26-2:13 this morning. As you turn there I’m going to show off my Father’s Day present. I promise there’s a point to this.
I like shoes, but I’m also pretty cheap. I also wear a size 15, which you can’t just walk into most stores and buy.
When it comes to basketball shoes I usually buy whatever I can find in my size. But Monika and the kids knew I had my eye on these Jayson Tatum shoes in black and red. They were hard to find, especially in my size.
They found them online, but they had to be very careful. Finding genuine shoes can be tricky. The counterfeit sneaker market is huge. By the end of 2023, it’ll be valued at nearly $600 billion. That’s 1.5 times more than the legitimate sneaker market.
(https://runrepeat.com/counterfeit-shoes-statistics)
To combat the counterfeiters, the sneaker industry has come up with a process knowns as legit checking. I found out that for a mere $200, you can get certified as a legit checker. You learn the difference in stitching between genuine sneakers and counterfeits. You learn how much the genuine shoes weigh, how they’re supposed to smell, and how they’re packaged.
Monika did good, because these shoes have been authenticated. Someone who knows the difference between genuine and counterfeit has checked these and tagged them as real. Now, I’m not sure I would have spotted the difference. And the fact that they’re genuine won’t make me a better basketball player but it’s good to know.
James cares little about genuine shoes, but he’s very concerned about genuine faith. He has laid out some characteristics of genuine faith already. Genuine faith counts trials as joy. Genuine faith turns to God for wisdom. Genuine faith doesn’t blame our temptation or our sin on God. Genuine faith embraces the Word of God. Genuine faith is marked by hearing the Word and following through by living out the Word. And it’s living out our faith in relationship with others that James focuses on as we close chapter 1 and begin chapter 2. Let’s read it together.
Read
You might remember folks wearing WWJD bracelets a couple of decades ago.
WWJD stands for, “What would Jesus do?” That bracelets were popular in the 1990’s, but the question comes from the 1890’s. Chicago pastor Charles Sheldon posed that question to his congregation in a series of sermons and illustrations to his congregation beginning in 1896. He turned that material into a novel titled In His Steps and it’s now one of the bestselling novels of all time.
It opens with a story about a fictional pastor in Kansas named Henry Maxwell. The good reverend was preparing his sermon on a Friday morning when he was interrupted by a knock at the door.
Rev. Maxwell’s guest was poorly dressed, dirty, and nervously holding his hat in his hands. The man said he was looking for work and asked if the minister might be able to point him to an establishment that was hiring. Maxwell was frustrated by the interruption, told the man he couldn’t help, and sent him away.
He closed the door and heard the man walk down the steps. As he went up into his study he saw from his hall window that the man was going slowly down the street, still holding his hat between his hands. There was something in the figure so dejected, homeless and forsaken that the Maxwell hesitated a moment as he stood looking at it. Then he turned to his desk and with a sigh began the writing where he had left off.
Not long after, Maxwell’s wife came home and noted the same shabby man was loitering around the schoolhouse.
That Sunday morning the First Church of Raymond gathered like they did every Sunday. But just after the sermon there was an interruption.
A man’s voice rose from the back of the church. He walked down the middle aisle and the congregation was so stunned that no one responded.
He said “I've been wondering since I came in here if it would be just the thing to say a word at the close of the service. I'm not drunk and I'm not crazy, and I am perfectly harmless, but if I die, as there is every likelihood I shall in a few days, I want the satisfaction of thinking that I said my say in a place like this, and before this sort of a crowd.”
“I'm not an ordinary tramp, though I don't know of any teaching of Jesus that makes one kind of a tramp less worth saving than another. Do you?” “I lost my job ten months ago. I am a printer by trade. The new linotype machines are beautiful specimens of invention, but I know six men who have killed themselves inside of the year just on account of those machines. Of course I don't blame the newspapers for getting the machines. Meanwhile, what can a man do? I know I never learned but the one trade, and that's all I can do. I've tramped all over the country trying to find something. There are a good many others like me. I'm not complaining, am I? Just stating facts. But I was wondering as I sat there under the gallery, if what you call following Jesus is the same thing as what He taught. What did He mean when He said: ‘Follow Me!’? The minister said that it is necessary for the disciple of Jesus to follow His steps, and he said the steps are ‘obedience, faith, love and imitation.’ But I did not hear him tell you just what he meant that to mean, especially the last step. What do you Christians mean by following the steps of Jesus? I've tramped through this city for three days trying to find a job; and in all that time I've not had a word of sympathy or comfort except from your minister here, who said he was sorry for me and hoped I would find a job somewhere. I suppose it is because you get so imposed on by the professional tramp that you have lost your interest in any other sort. I'm not blaming anybody, am I? Just stating facts. Of course, I understand you can't all go out of your way to hunt up jobs for other people like me. I'm not asking you to; but what I feel puzzled about is, what is meant by following Jesus. Do you mean that you are suffering and denying yourselves and trying to save lost, suffering humanity just as I understand Jesus did? What do you mean by it? I heard some people singing at a church prayer meeting the other night, All for Jesus, all for Jesus, All my being's ransomed powers, All my thoughts, and all my doings, All my days, and all my hours. and I kept wondering as I sat on the steps outside just what they meant by it. It seems to me there's an awful lot of trouble in the world that somehow wouldn't exist if all the people who sing such songs went and lived them out. I suppose I don't understand. But what would Jesus do?”
Then, as the fictional story goes the man collapsed. He died a couple fo days later, but his words changed the whole town. Raymond, Kansas (at least in Sheldon’s novel) was guilty of the sin of partiality.
Partiality is bias. It’s favoring one person over another. Genuine faith loves others without showing sinful favoritism. That’s the heart of our text today and we see it in all three sections. First, genuine faith loves the unloved. Look at 1:26,
Genuine Faith loved the unloved (1:26-27)
26 If anyone thinks he is religious without controlling his tongue, his religion is useless and he deceives himself. 27 Pure and undefiled religion before God the Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
James comes right out and says something here that he has been driving at all throughout chapter 1. It’s a warning we all need tot take to heart. It’s possible to deceive yourself into thinking you have genuine faith when your faith is actually counterfeit.
He uses the word religious in verse 26. That means the outward display of faith. He doesn’t say holiness or godliness or Christlikeness. He says religion. The ceremonial display of faith. It’s a bit of a tease, too. James is going to say a lot more about our speech later in this letter.
The point he begins building here in verse 26 is that you’re fooling yourself if you think you can read the Bible, go to church, memorize hymns, serve the community, but still say and think whatever your sinful heart desires.
If you want to know if your faith is genuine, check your tongue. Now, pin that truth because James comes back to it later.
Because here’s the big truth about genuine faith that drives us into chapter 2. Genuine faith loves the least lovable.
True saving faith, true religion to use James’s language, is to demonstrate love even to those who have nothing to offer. To care for those who can’t care for themselves.
Church, it’s easy to love people who are lovable. One of the things I heard so many times a few weeks ago when we celebrated the life of Travis Barr is that everyone loved Travis. He was so easy to love.
James is talking about loving the unloved. Loving them means looking after them, according to the text. It doesn’t mean you merely see them. It means you care for them. It's the same idea Jesus was getting at in Matthew 25:35-36.
“‘For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat; I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink; I was a stranger and you took me in; I was naked and you clothed me; I was sick and you took care of me; I was in prison and you visited me.’
Orphans and widows in James’s context are the people who can’t care for themselves. He doesn’t mean that if you’re not meeting the need of every suffering person that you’re not a Christian. But he is saying that the life that demonstrates genuine faith will be marked by a pattern of caring for those who need help. Just like you experience trials as opportunities for joy, just like you reject temptation, just like you embrace God’s Word, you will have compassion on those in need of compassion.
We do this in organized ways here at First Baptist that most people never see. We help dozens of families every year with physical needs such as food and gas and electric bills and things like that. But what gets me even more excited is the way some of you do these things on your own just as a part of living as God’s people. Every single week there are people in this room who visit the sick and the lonely. They take food to the hungry. They welcome other people’s children into their homes. There are folks who are part of our church family who take seriously what James says here and I’m so incredibly thankful for that.
How about you? Do you have a desire to meet the needs of the unloved around you? Does their pain burden your heart? Again, this doesn’t mean that you meet every single need you come across. No one can do that. But if you have genuine faith, James is saying the general trajectory of your life will reflect a faith that loves the unloved. It shouldn’t take you very long to remember the last time you’ve shown compassion for someone in need.
That’s a mark of a genuine faith. Loving the unlovable. In fact, genuine faith goes farther. It treats everyone with compassion, no matter their status. Look at the beginning of chapter 2.
Genuine Faith Shows No Favoritism (2:1-7)
2 My brothers and sisters, do not show favoritism as you hold on to the faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ. 2 For if someone comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and a poor person dressed in filthy clothes also comes in, 3 if you look with favor on the one wearing the fine clothes and say, “Sit here in a good place,” and yet you say to the poor person, “Stand over there,” or “Sit here on the floor by my footstool,” 4 haven’t you made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?
5 Listen, my dear brothers and sisters: Didn’t God choose the poor in this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him? 6 Yet you have dishonored the poor. Don’t the rich oppress you and drag you into court? 7 Don’t they blaspheme the good name that was invoked over you?
Do not show favoritism. Don’t treat people differently based on their status. If we only love people who are easy to love, we really haven’t anything different than the world, have we?
This idea didn’t originate with James, either. In Leviticus 19:15 we read: Do not act unjustly when deciding a case. Do not be partial to the poor or give preference to the rich; judge your neighbor fairly.
Exodus 23:3 Do not show favoritism to a poor person in his lawsuit. We also see the principle gone wrong in family life. If you remember the story of Joseph in Genesis 37, you’ll remember that it was Jacob’s favoritism of Joseph that led to his brothers hating him and selling him into slavery.
Romans 2:11 is explicit: there is no favoritism with God. That’s echoed in Ephesians 6. Colossians teaches that the wrongdoer will be paid back for whatever wrong he has done, and there is no favoritism.
Paul tells Timothy, "I solemnly charge you before God and Christ Jesus and the elect angels to observe these things without prejudice, doing nothing out of favoritism.” (1 Tim. 5:21)
I share all those verses with you because this sin is so easy to fall into. There’s something ingrained in our sinful hearts to want to get close to people who offer us some kind of benefit. There’s a selfish desire to use people to get what we want and if that’s the desire that motivates us we will absolutely ignore the very people who need our compassion the most.
Here’s the scenario James paints. The original language is so beautifully vivid. It says a gold-fingered man comes into their church gathering. He’s not just wearing a gold ring. He has so many gold rings it looks like he has gold fingers. And the church saves a seat for him. He needs the gospel after all, and just maybe one of those gold rings will fall off in the offering plate. They make sure he’s greeted, they make sure he’s loved. They’ll probably make sure the pastor goes over and says hi.
And church, there’s nothing wrong with that. That’s simply Christian hospitality. The problem is when a man comes into the church like the poor man in Charles Sheldon’s story.
His clothes are ragged. He smells bad. He probably talks too loud and too much. He doesn’t know when to sit down or when to stand up. He’s wearing his work clothes and his job is gross.
And we’re going to be tempted to treat the shiny person better than the smelly person. When we act on that temptation—whether in our minds or with our hands—we’re in sin and sin gives birth to death. James has already shown us that.
That kind of double standard is sinful. It is evil. It should not be named among God’s people, yet I’d submit we’re all guilty of it at one time or another. Because it doesn’t just apply to the church.
Anytime we judge people based on their appearance, their skin color, their tattoos or piercings, or how much they weigh or any of those outward characteristics we are in sin.
When we treat someone as less-than us because of their appearance or even their lifestyle-even if their lifestyle is sinful—it’s us who are guilty.
James uses a word in verse 4 that means vicious. We’re just like the sinful world around us when we show favoritism, because that’s what the world does.
We evaluate people based on what they wear, what they drive, what kind of house they live in, how educated they are, what kind of job they have and the text teaches that God doesn’t care about those things and we shouldn’t either.
Ephesians 1 tells us God chose to love His people from before the foundation of the world. Before we had an education, before we had fancy clothes or a nice house, God chose to love His people.
God is impartial. We should be, too. And this applies to people who have lifestyles that go against Scripture and who we have incredible differences with. It doesn’t matter what a person’s criminal history, sexual orientation, or what they identify as—genuine faith will overcome those external issues and love people anyway. We will treat them as friends. We will have compassion on them.
Don’t get me wrong. They need to repent of their sin and trust Jesus for their salvation or they’ll spend eternity in hell. And you need to share that good news with them.
But the reason, church, that some people feel like they need to clean themselves up or fix their sins before they come to church is because we’ve treated them in such a way that makes it feel like that’s true. We should not be surprised when new people walk into church and don’t act like Christians. We should treat them with every bit as much compassion as we do the sweetest longtime church member in the building.
Our natural disposition is to give deference to the rich, those who have resources and power. That’s why James reminds us that God has chosen the poor to be rich in heaven. And because we serve a God who shows no favoritism, we cannot show favoritism either.
James goes on to illustrate that we’re going to struggle with this until we fully grasp the true meaning of mercy.
Genuine Faith Offers and Accepts Mercy (2:8-13)
8 Indeed, if you fulfill the royal law prescribed in the Scripture, Love your neighbor as yourself, you are doing well. 9 If, however, you show favoritism, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. 10 For whoever keeps the entire law, and yet stumbles at one point, is guilty of breaking it all. 11 For he who said, Do not commit adultery, also said, Do not murder. So if you do not commit adultery, but you murder, you are a lawbreaker.
12 Speak and act as those who are to be judged by the law of freedom. 13 For judgment is without mercy to the one who has not shown mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
Mercy is the remedy for favoritism. James roots his argument in the Old Testament Law. You can’t love your neighbor as yourself if you’re showing favoritism. We all show favoritism to ourselves. That’s why dual zone climate control exists in cars, amen?
I’m pretty sure that having those individual controls saved our marriage early on. I’m very hot natured and Monika would wear a sweater in a hot tub if she could get away with it.
When we’re on a road trip and I’m driving she brings a blanket and socks. I’m in shorts and a t-shirt. She’ll have her side set to 90 and mine is set to 60. It’s raining on the center console, but we’re both happy. We love ourselves. We make ourselves comfortable.
If we treat everyone we meet with that kind of care, we’re not going to be playing favorites.
James reminds us of the problem, though. We all fail to meet God’s standard. If we mess up in one point, we’re guilty of breaking the entire law.
God gave us His law not to burden us but to show us our need for a Savior. The law revealed our imperfections—especially when it comes to favoritism. But Jesus, lived a life without sin, without a single transgression of the law. He is the benchmark of perfection.
In our own strength, no human can never keep the law perfectly. We all fall short. But Jesus, He did it for us. He bore the weight of our sins on the cross, taking our punishment upon Himself. He paid the price for our law-breaking, so that through faith in Him, we might be declared righteous before God.
Because of Jesus, we can stand before a holy God with confidence, not because of our own righteousness, but because of His. When we put our trust in Jesus, His perfect law-keeping becomes our righteousness if we repent of our sin and place our trust in Him. Because Jesus kept the Law, we’re not judged according to the standard of the Law anymore. We’re judged based on Jesus’ finished work. It’s the law of freedom according to James.
Paul put it this way:
2 Corinthians 5:21 He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
We have experienced God’s mercy, so we can show mercy to others. Mercy beyond compassion. It goes beyond sympathy. It means sympathy and compassion in action toward anyone in need.
John MacArthur said it well:
Mercy is seeing a man without food and giving him food. Mercy is seeing a person begging for love and giving him love. Mercy is seeing someone lonely and giving him company. Mercy is meeting the need, not just feeling it.
(https://www.gty.org/library/blog/B170130/blessed-are-the-merciful)
When we receive God’s mercy, church, it enables us to have mercy on others. And if we approach everyone with meet with a humble, merciful attitude we will avoid favoritism.
That’s what it means to love your neighbor as yourself.
Take care of other people just the same way you take care of yourself. To the same degree, with the same intensity; to the same benefit, with the same protection; the same concern for health, and care, and spiritual well-being, and growth in grace and holiness; and Christlikeness and all those things, you are to be concerned with others as much as you are with yourself. And if that law is obeyed, there will be no partiality, James says.
Church, there’s no little tag that God is going to place on you that shows the world you’re a genuine believer. But He has shown us in His Word what marks those who have genuine faith.
Like the church described by Charles Sheldon, there have been times when all of us ignore the needy people God has placed in our lives. Would you join me, church, in praying that God will protect us from favoritism and grow our hearts for one another and the world around us?
Questions for Further Discussion & Reflection
Have you heard of the "WWJD" bracelets before? What do you think about the idea of asking, "What would Jesus do?" in various situations?
What does the term "partiality" mean, and why is it considered a sin in the context of the sermon?
According to the sermon, what are some examples of partiality or favoritism that can occur in our daily lives, both inside and outside of the church?
In Genesis 37:3-4, we see the story of Joseph and his coat of many colors, which created jealousy and favoritism among his brothers. In 1 Samuel 16:6-13, Samuel is sent to anoint David as the future king of Israel, despite being the youngest and seemingly less favored by his family. How do these stories illustrate the negative consequences of favoritism?
How does favoritism relate to the concept of "loving the unloved" as discussed in the sermon? What is the significance of caring for those who can't care for themselves?
In what ways do we sometimes judge people based on their outward appearance, social status, or background? Why is it important to recognize and address this tendency?
How does the concept of "mercy" relate to favoritism, as explained in the sermon? Why is showing mercy to others crucial in demonstrating genuine faith?
What is the "law of freedom" mentioned in the sermon, and how does it relate to our judgment and righteousness through Jesus Christ?
In the story of Jacob and Esau, Jacob receives his father Isaac's blessing through deception, leading to conflict and favoritism within the family. What lessons can we derive from this story about the destructive nature of favoritism and its impact on relationships? (Genesis 25:19-34)
What steps can our church take to guard against favoritism and actively demonstrate genuine faith through love and mercy?
In your opinion, how can we ensure that our faith is not just a ceremonial display but a genuine, transformative force in our lives and communities, as highlighted in the sermon?
In Matthew 22:15-22, the Pharisees tried to trap Jesus with a question about paying taxes. How did Jesus respond to their attempt at favoritism, and what can we learn from His response?